Interview: K.A. Last, YA author

Today I’m interviewing the fabulous K.A. Last, Indie YA author. In my opinion, she’s an Indie author who’s Doing It Right ™.

Your book, Fall for Me, was the first self-published novel I ever read. It was fun and fast-paced, and left me wanting to know more about the characters.

Thank you! You are too kind, and I feel honoured that my book was the first self-published novel you ever read. I hope I set a high standard of expectation. 😉

Maybe too high! To be honest, some other self-published novels I’ve read since haven’t fared very well in comparison. What advice would you give a new writer considering self-publishing?

My advice would be: aim to be as professional as you can with the resources that you have. That short sentence encompasses a lot of things: marketing, editing, cover design, production — the list is endless. Independent authors need to keep up with the standards that traditional publishers have set, so we can do away with the stigma that Indie means lower quality. I pride myself on producing a quality product (which unfortunately doesn’t mean to say that everyone has liked my books).

My other piece of advice would be: an Indie author is their own boss, but we can’t be too hard on ourselves. This publishing thing is a lot of hard work, and there are times we need to be a little nicer to ourselves. Oh! One more thing: take everything in your stride, don’t respond to negative situations, and if you fall, pick yourself back up again and keep going.

You’ve described yourself as a bit of a control freak, so I can see why you love the idea of self-publishing. Would you consider pursuing a small press or traditional big six publishing deal after having self-published your first two books? 

This is quite a hard question, and one I don’t really know the answer to. A year or so ago I would have said yes, most definitely. I guess if a big six offered me a contract with a huge advance I might consider it, but if I was to go with a publisher I think I’d feel more comfortable with a small press.

These days the big six publishers still expect their authors to do a lot of promoting. I do that anyway, so the added benefits would need to be worthwhile. I’m in this for the long haul. Things take time, so I’m happy working away at building my fan base, working on my next release(s) and doing it myself for the moment.

Also, I think sometimes I’m too impatient for the query process. I finish something and I want to get it out for people to read, not sit around and wait while someone may or may not want to sign my book.

As well as writing, publishing and promoting your books, you also have a graphic design business, and you work and have small children. How do you find the time to do everything?!

Ha! I don’t. Basically it’s whatever has priority gets done first. All the other stuff waits. If I have the choice between sitting down to do edits and playing with the kids, I play with the kids. My family is the most important thing in my life, and they always come first. I can stay up late and do edits after the kids are asleep.

There’s a quote I love from The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom: “It is never too late or too soon. It is when it is supposed to be.” Exactly!

Cover illustration: Lawrence Mann

You’ve got a new release coming out before the end of the year, Immagica–which one early reviewer described as “the Never Ending Story meets Jumanji with a little Alice in Wonderland thrown in”. How have you found the experience of writing fantasy as opposed to urban fantasy? (I’ll be honest: so far the world-building has scared me off writing that genre!)

Immagica was so much fun to write. You shouldn’t be scared of writing fantasy! With something that is pure fantasy and set in another world, there are no rules. In Immagica I made the rules so no one can tell me any part of it is wrong. The world-building was a really exciting part of the story, and I love the world I’ve created. I’ve found Pinterest is a great way to help with inspiration and visualisation.

Urban fantasy is also a lot of fun to write, but there are already certain rules in place that you have to follow. If you break them there needs to be a good reason for it, or a really unique take on something that is already established. Basically I’m happy when I’m writing whether it’s fantasy, urban fantasy, dystopian, paranormal romance, or contemporary (yes, I have a contemporary WIP, although it may turn into an UF). Each story is different and sucks me in with its own uniqueness.

For those who’ve read Fall for Me: if you were stuck on a desert island, would you choose to be stranded with Grace, Josh or Seth? Assume for the purposes of this question that none of their various supernatural abilities are available (so you can’t just choose one that can teleport!).

Oh dear, I love all my characters for different reasons, so this is a really hard question. But I think I would have to choose Seth. He is a very multi-layered character. He’s a typical bad boy in that he likes to uphold his mean exterior, but on the inside he has a lot to offer. I’m assuming we will be on this island for a while and I think he would provide the most interesting conversation. He’s also been through a lot in his long existence so I think he could teach me a thing or two. Not to mention he’s pretty nice to look at. 😉

Haha, I’d choose Seth too. Mostly because I’m superficial and he’s smoking hot! Thanks for dropping by. 😉

About the author: K. A. Last was born in Subiaco, Western Australia, and moved to Sydney with her parents and older brother when she was eight. Artistic and creative by nature, she studied Graphic Design and graduated with an Advanced Diploma. After marrying her high school sweetheart, she concentrated on her career before settling into family life. Blessed with a vivid imagination, she began writing to let off creative steam, and fell in love with it. She now resides in a peaceful, leafy suburb north of Sydney with her husband, their two children, and a rabbit named Twitch.

You can find her at her website, or on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads or on Amazon.

Blurb for IMMAGICA:

Title: Immagica
Author: K. A. Last
Genre: YA Fantasy/Adventure
Expected Date of Publication: November 2013
Word Count: Around 66,000
Cover Illustration: Lawrence Mann
Cover Designer: KILA Designs

Immagica…

Where anything is possible, but not always controllable.

Enter at your own risk.

The night before her fifteenth birthday, Rosaline Clayton receives an amulet from her deranged father. He tells her she must find the book, and begs her to save him. Rosaline is used to her father not making any sense, and she dismisses their conversation as another of his crazy rants.

Rosaline and her younger brother, Elliot, find the old, leather-bound book tucked away in their Nana’s attic, and it sucks them into its pages. They land in a magical world where anything is possible, but when Rosaline and Elliot are separated, the only thing Rosaline wants is to find her brother and go home.

The creatures of Immagica have other ideas. Rosaline befriends a black unicorn, two fairies, and a girl named Brynn, who are under threat from a menacing dragon. Rosaline discovers she is bound to Immagica in ways she doesn’t understand, and the fate of this magical world rests entirely on her shoulders.

Add Immagica on Goodreads today!

Interview: Dahlia Adler, YA author

Today I’m pleased to be interviewing Dahlia Adler. If you’re part of the writing community on Twitter, particularly, you’ll probably have heard of Dahlia; she’s full of good advice and kind words for new writers. Her first book, BEHIND THE SCENES, comes out in June next year.

Tell us about your THREE-BOOK DEAL with Spencer Hill Contemporary (SHC)! I gather they signed you up not for a trilogy but for separate books. How did that process work?

This was actually sort of a hilarious process, because in addition to being my wonderful, talented editor, Patricia Riley is also a friend of mine. She loved (well, hopefully loves!) BEHIND THE SCENES and once we started talking about it, I couldn’t stop babbling about every random thought I’d ever had, and one was what my imaginary companion novel would be. As the deal was happening, she said, “Well, what if it wasn’t so imaginary?” And then as we kept talking, she said she didn’t want to lose me after two books, and I knew I had a couple of others I thought could be perfect for her and SHC, so the non-trilogy three-book deal was born! Definitely not typical in process or practice, but I’m very, very excited that Patricia’s stuck with me for a while longer!

What has your favourite part of the publishing process been so far?

I announced my deal five months ago and it’s still the greatest feeling in the world every time someone tells me they’re actually excited to read my book. Like, people I don’t know who don’t have to say that to be nice to me. That is so amazing, and having great editors at SHC in Patricia and her incredible editorial assistant, Lauren, makes me feel infinitely better about what I’ll be releasing into the world!

What about the worst part?

Dahlia the Divine (as she shall henceforth be known!)

I just turned around my first round of edits, and there’s always this nagging feeling of what else I could’ve or should’ve done, and the anticipation of the response, and thinking “If only I’d had another week.” And while now, sure, there’s always another round of edits, the realization that one day there won’t be—that what I’ve done is what readers will get—is terrifying. But eventually, you have to let go, and that’s why I think it’s so, so important to trust the people in charge of your book that they’ll make it the best they can be.

All your books (that I’m aware of!) are young adult contemporary—even The Book of Esther, a retelling of the biblical book of (surprise!) Esther. What draws you to that genre?

I love contemporary for all the lives it allows you to live vicariously; that’s always been a huge draw to writing it for me. This definitely traces back largely to the fact that I strictly observe Orthodox Judaism (if I’m never gonna eat bacon in real life, I’m going to have characters who do!) but I’ve also come to realize that part of what I love about contemporary is the challenge of creating new stories in the confines of a world that already exists.

Now, granted, my worldbuilding skills when it comes to making up alternate realities and fantasy lands are nonexistent, so I highly doubt I could write another genre even if I wanted to, but there’s something so cool in contemporary about having to create new worlds, schools, local cultures, etc. within the existing geographical boundaries, social constructs, and laws of our world. It’s a fun challenge every time, trying to figure out a way to make your story stand out when you’re playing by the same guidelines as every other contemporary writer!

I’ve got a Pinterest board where I collect blog posts that are great resources for writers, and your posts and Chuck Wendig’s are the majority my pins. You also volunteer your time on contests like Pitch Madness. How do you manage all these incredibly generous contributions to the writing community while also finding time to write, work and, you know, eat? Do you have a TARDIS?!

Thanks so much for that! Regarding time, I’m honestly just very, very lucky. My husband is the crazy kind of supportive that will say things like, “I’ll clean up the enormous mess you just made in the kitchen—you go write.” I also have a brain that thrives on multi-tasking, a job that allows for some surreptitious tweeting during the day and blogging during lunch, a subway commute that ensures I’ll always have plenty of time to read and often beta, and incredible friends and CPs who keep me sane and my work better.

But I also don’t have kids or pets. I don’t give any time to things like exercise. I don’t have other hobbies. I’m pretty apathetic as to the cleanliness of my house. And I really don’t care if I get to shower every day. Or every other day. Or every three days. It’s easy, especially over social media, to forget how both our personal wiring and personal circumstances feed in to what we are able to put out into the world. But those things can factor in as much as skill, knowledge and desire do.

What book release are you most looking forward to in the next six months?

Oh God, this question is torturously unfair. I am so, so excited for so many upcoming releases, and anyone who follows my blog will see me talking about them a lot over the next few months. I’ll answer, but I’m going to cheat a little and go with something that’s in the next six and a half months, because it really is the answer that automatically comes to mind when I think about the release I’m dying for: OPEN ROAD SUMMER by Emery Lord, which releases on 15 April 2014, from Walker.

Our books are similar in premise, so obviously it’s an idea that excited me from the get-go, but I’m really excited for the differences, too—I know nothing about the country music world, and I love that there’s a huge travel aspect to the plot—and now that I know Emery personally, I’m particularly excited for the amount of heart and humor I know will fill it. So…is it April yet??

Dahlia Adler is an Assistant Editor of mathematics by day, a Copy Editor at Spencer Hill Contemporary and Ellora’s Cave by night, and a YA author and blogger at every spare moment in between. She lives in New York City with her husband and their overstuffed bookshelves, and is represented by Lana Popovic at Zachary Shuster Harmsworth. You can find her on Twitter at @MissDahlELama and blogging at The Daily Dahlia and YA Misfits.

Blurb for BEHIND THE SCENES:

Eighteen-year-old Ally Duncan’s best friend may be “the” Vanessa Park – star of TV’s hottest new teen drama – but Ally’s not interested in following in her BFF’s Hollywood footsteps. In fact, the only thing Ally’s ever really wanted is to go to Columbia and study abroad in Paris. But when her father’s mounting medical bills threaten to stop her dream in its tracks, Ally nabs a position as Van’s on-set assistant to get the cash she needs.

Spending the extra time with Van turns out to be fun, and getting to know her sexy co-star Liam is an added bonus. But when the actors’ publicist arranges for Van and Liam to “date” for the tabloids just after he and Ally share their first kiss, Ally will have to decide exactly what role she’s capable of playing in their world of make believe. If she can’t play by Hollywood’s rules, she may lose her best friend, her dream future, and her first shot at love.